The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) inflation increased by 0.25 percent during the week ended January 29, 2015. The provisional data, released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), shows that the SPI for the week under review was recorded at 208.49 points against 207.98 over the same period of last year. The SPI inflation decreased by 0.42 percent this week as compared to the previous week, coming down from 209.37 points to 208.49 points.
The weekly SPI has been computed with base 2007-2008=100, covering 17 urban centres and 53 essential items for all income groups. The SPI for the lowest income group up to Rs 8,000 registered an increase of 0.99 percent during the week under review as compared to the same period last year. During the week, average prices of 12 items registered an increase while that of 11 registered a decrease. The prices of 30 essential items remained unchanged during the week under review.
The 12 essential items which registered increase in prices during last week were sugar, pulse moong washed, red chili powder loose, pulse gram washed, gur, tea Lipton Yellow label, garlic, pulse masoor washed, pulse mash washed, bananas and mutton. The 11 items which registered decrease in prices during the week under review included chicken live, LPG cylinder 11kg, potatoes, eggs ,onions, kerosene oil, tomatoes, vegetable ghee, loose/pouch, rice irri-6 (Punjab/Sindh), wheat flour bag and wheat.
The 30 items prices of which did not change during the week under review were rice basmati broken, bread plain medium size, beef ,milk fresh, curd ,powdered milk Nido, mustard oil, cooking oil tin, vegetable ghee tin, salt powder loose Lahori, cooked beef, cooked daal, tea prepared, cigarettes k-2, 20's, long cloth 57" Gul Ahmed/Al-Karam, lawn printed Gul Ahmed / Al-Karam, gents sandal Bata, gents chappa Bata, ladies sandal Bata, electricity charges up to 50 units, gas charges up to 3.3719 MMBTU, firewood whole, electric bulb, energy saver 14 watt, washing soap 200-250gm per pack, match box, petrol, super, Hi Speed Diesel (HSD), telephone local call charges and soap Lifebuoy.